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Seaman's Rilinger sharp after delay, wins 5A regional singles title

EMPORIA — A two-hour weather delay right smack dab in the middle of his Class 5A regional singles championship match could have been more than enough to throw Seaman’s Todd Rilinger off his game.

Instead, it only seemed to sharpen it.

“It definitely eased the tensions completely,” Rilinger said of a tight match with Emporia’s Logan Cayton that he led 5-4 when lightning halted the action. “Just not playing and being able to relax really allowed my nerves to go down. Since we stopped at 5-4, it really helped a lot because at that point, the nerves were really high.”

The tension got even greater when Rilinger dropped the first game after the delay to fall into a 5-5 tie with Cayton. But if it was getting to Rilinger, it hardly showed.

He responded by taking the next two games to finish the first set 7-5 and then cruised to a 6-1 win in the second to capture the regional title.

Rilinger’s singles crown highlighted a stellar day for the Vikings, who qualified five of six players for state and took second to Andover, which qualified its entire squad. Both Vikings doubles teams also advanced with Grant Boyd and Cameron Waters finishing third and Ryder Chaffee and Mike Latendresse taking sixth.

“When you get five out of six players to state it’s always a good day,” Seaman coach Greg Lutz said. “Andover’s a good team, and we knew we had to kick on all six cylinders to beat them. I’m very pleased. We’re playing with five players that were JV last year and for them to step up and be one match away from winning Centennial League and as close as we were today, you have to be happy as a coach.”

Rilinger dropped three matches to Cayton a year ago, including one at the state tournament that kept him from placing. In their only previous meeting this year, however, Rilinger got his first measure of revenge, topping Cayton for third place at the league meet.

After beating Topeka West’s Nico Gomez 7-5, 6-1 in the semifinals, Rilinger knew he’d have a tough rematch with Cayton in the finals and the first set played out that way.

Rilinger broke Cayton midway through the set, but Cayton returned the favor in the next game and the two seemed headed for a tiebreaker after Cayton grabbed the first game after the rain delay.

But two straight aces by Rilinger seemed to get the Viking going and he never really looked back. He dropped only three points in the final two games of the first set and broke Cayton’s first two serves in the second set to take control.

“Logan and I have had a history,” Rilinger said. “We’re very close, and I like to play against him, it was just today I came out on top.

“What I’ve done in the past just does not work against him, trying to hit winners. That’s a huge improvement I’ve had, just focusing more on patience and not trying to blast away.”

Cayton admitted he could do nothing but tip his cap to Rilinger after the match.

“I have to give a lot of credit to him because he played really consistent today,” Cayton said. “He didn’t make many mistakes and played a smart match. I played pretty well, too, but he was the better opponent today.”

Gomez gave West, which finished third, an additional qualifier, taking fourth in singles after a 6-3, 6-2 loss to Wichita Heights’ Kerry Dunn for third. Slaughter and Graber were Heights’ only qualifiers.